Client-Driven Project on Sustainability within First-Year Cornerstone Design

Abstract

EDSGN 100 is the cornerstone engineering design course at The Pennsylvania State University. During the second half of the spring 2020 semester, students across 19 sections of the course were presented with the same design prompt: how can you improve sustainability at Penn State and in the local communities? Throughout the course of the project, students were expected to view their identified sustainability challenge and proposed solution from a systems perspective. In developing and evaluating their designs, teams were expected to draw connections between the sustainability challenge they identified, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other grand challenges, and climate change solutions posed by Drawdown. Further, teams were expected to explore the direct and indirect impacts of implementing their proposed design on society, the environment, and the economy.